How Many Subscribers Does "Mormon Interpreter" Have?

[_Doctor Scratch]

Reverend: you were quite right to draw attention to the fact that the exchange of money is a serious issue in this ongoing war. Take a look at this, from the "Comments" on Smoot's blog:

The Firm Foundation, a dba of Foundation for Indigenous Research and Mormonism affiliated with Legacy Research LLC, deserves credit for effective marketing. After a number of short-lived business ventures (High Country Gourmet Enterprises, High Country Gourmet, High Country Gourmet LLC, RA Transport LLC, Covenant Magazine, Firm LDS Magazine LLC, Firm Foundation Magazine LLC) the entrepreneurs behind the heartland business have succeeded in identifying a lucrative niche market and providing a steady supply of goods and services to satisfy consumer demand.

The semi-annual Firm Foundation Expo is a veritable marketplace offering emergency preparedness, holistic health and wellness, signs of the times and last days timelines, fundamentalist constitutionalism, food storage, camping, gardening, and survival products & skills, first aid, essential oils, hypnotic therapy, massage therapy, jiu-jitsu, alternative medicine, alternative science, cannabis (marijuana) products, water filters, pop psychology, and addiction therapy, all served up with Book of Mormon evidences, ancient symbolism, world events & prophecy, Church history, ebullient flag-draped American exceptionalism, and much more. The Annotated Edition of the Book of Mormon fits strategically in this product mix which creates employment.

The Firm Foundation should also be complimented for assembling a coterie of like-minded individual vendors and companies retailing books, magazines, tours, DVD’s, cartoons, replicas, sculpture, and other art. Savvy merchants all. Heartland leaders astutely join forces with popular noble causes such as Operation Underground Railroad and Lifey to enhance their brand. They are also enterprising. The 13.82 acres Zarahemla Holdings LLC owns in Lee County, Iowa is full of market potential.

You can’t argue with success. Meldrum outsells Sorenson. The Firm Foundation Expo generates positive cash flow. Heartlanders are good at their craft. When Dan Peterson authors a popular blog on LDS Living describing a new scholarly study positing a strong correlation between the Book of Mormon and the Maya, online ads for bookofmormonevidence.org appear and what is on that landing page? Dozens of calls to action to register, buy, order, and purchase event tickets, books, DVD’s, and tours. Kudos to good salesmanship. A scan of the lengthy April 2019 Expo page turns up the following word counts: book (186), health (69), business (34), economic (21), investment (8), sell (7), DVD (7), Trump (7), purchase (5) and wealth (5). The Firm Foundation drives traffic by staying on message and some leaders earn a respectable livelihood from their occupation. They know what sells and it certainly isn’t high-brow scholarship. I applaud the Firm Foundation for their ongoing commercial success.

TL:DR – priestcraft. (It fits both definitions: setting one’s self up as a light, and turning others’ faith into cash.)

Yeah, who needs good, level, careful scholarship, anyway? No one actually reads the footnotes and the references! What a waste of time! So boring. So unmarketable. Meldrum, lead the way!

Come to think of it, we really should be sending out all our missionaries to drum up converts with this sensational marketing approach. Essential oils mingled with scripture could really attract the people. Imagine the profits! #priestcraftforthewin

They are really throwing down with the accusations of priestcraft, and of FIRM being essentially a money-making operation, and not a legitimately faith-driven enterprise. Again: I wonder how wise this strategy is. Sure, it'll work just fine when it is leveled at evangelical critics, but at other Latter-day Saints? The Mopologists made these same accusations--weakly, I might add--against John Dehlin, arguing that his 60K salary was somehow "priestcraft" (and what are the Brethren paid, again?). It really puts the Mopologists in a bind. I mean, look at this quote, from Kirk Magleby:

"Meldrum outsells Sorenson."

Ouch. (And is it really true that the Heartlanders are selling cannabis products? Interesting.) Well, it's true that there are lots of different ways to generate cash (or trying to generate a lot of it)--such as by producing films, say. Or by partnering with a cruise company in order to profit enormously, but in a way that effectively dodges accusations of direct compensation. And the situation puts people like DCP in a tough spot: here he is, wanting to appear like he's successful and respectable, hence the non-stop boasting about his travels, the "5-star" hotels he's staying in, etc. (Where does Pres. Nelson stay, I wonder? You know: since what he does is so modest?) And yet, he's simultaneously forced to swear up and down that he doesn't get any "extra compensation" for the stuff he does--that Mopologetics doesn't pull in any "actual" money, etc., despite the fact that, as we all know, enterprises of any sort need money in order to operates. Kirk Magleby faults the Heartlanders for being connected to other ventures such as alternative medicine, and yet last I checked, the LDS Church itself has invested in things like shopping malls and cattle ranches.

*That*, ultimately, is why all of this is so interesting: because it is a referendum on the LDS Church itself, and the Church's business practices. The Mopologists are wagering that FIRM's way of doing business has crossed a line such that the Brethren will now step in and start ordering excommunications. (Let's face it: that is the endgame goal here for the Mopologists.) That's a bold move indeed! I don't really see the Brethren following through on this, but I guess we will have to see how this unfolds. Very ugly indeed.

[_Kishkumen]

It is a dangerous move to horn in on the LDS Church’s brand with competing merchandise. That is a sure-fire way to get accused of priestcraft, especially if your message is too far outside of correlated fare. The latter makes you particularly vulnerable.

[_Markk]

Kirk Magleby faults the Heartlanders for being connected to other ventures such as alternative medicine, and yet last I checked, the LDS Church itself has invested in things like shopping malls and cattle ranches.

*That*, ultimately, is why all of this is so interesting: because it is a referendum on the LDS Church itself, and the Church's business practices. The Mopologists are wagering that FIRM's way of doing business has crossed a line such that the Brethren will now step in and start ordering excommunications. (Let's face it: that is the endgame goal here for the Mopologists.) That's a bold move indeed! I don't really see the Brethren following through on this, but I guess we will have to see how this unfolds. Very ugly indeed.

To narrow your point down to a more specific context; book sales, it appears that the #1 priest in 2018 was none other than President Nelson, followed by one of the new priests, Elder Rasband. https://blog.deseretbook.com/news/2019/ ... rs-in-2018

If book sales, or lack of, is the benchmark and baseline for determining motive and integrity, then they might want to take a step back and look at their accusation and what, and more importantly whom, it encompasses.

It is apparent that Mopology can only survive in a very small box. As an example their idea of peer review is in a small box labeled "former FARM's members only." Now as you pointed out, their idea of priestcraft appears to be in a small box labeled, "only those that we disagree with and sell more books than us, but not those that sell more books than us, even if they disagree with our MO, that can kick us off campus and fire us from our day jobs"